


You Will Remember Me For Centuries...

by PhoenixFire_theWizardGoddess



Category: Spirited Away
Genre: Continuation of Spirited Away from the end of the movie, F/M, Told via letter to her children now that the end is drawing close to her greatest adventure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-23
Updated: 2014-11-23
Packaged: 2018-02-26 18:02:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2661326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhoenixFire_theWizardGoddess/pseuds/PhoenixFire_theWizardGoddess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once Sen of the Spirit's Bathhouse, Chihiro Ogino is nearing the end of her other greatest adventure... life.<br/>Her final gift is to impart, via introspective letter to her surviving children and future decendants, the truth about their lives... of her stories of faraway worlds, of their father... of how she came to exist, suddenly and inexplicably, in a world many years beyond that of the one she had left that fateful day.</p>
<p>This is her story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Will Remember Me For Centuries...

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Spirited Away or any associated characters.
> 
> Commissioned but not paid for. 
> 
> I do hope this meets your expectations, but please let me know if it does not.

* * *

 

_**My children,** _

 

I write to you these words of a time long since passed… perhaps you will not believe them, or think them a fairy tale fantasy I have conjured in my solitudinous dotage… but I swear each and every word is true.

 

When I was but a willful girl, ten years of age in all, something near indescribable occurred and changed the entirety of my life… and ensured your existences in this modern age of technology and prosperity. I would hazard a guess that this will come as news to you, for I saw the manner in which each of your eyes slowly grew unfocused when I tried to speak to you of my adventures… of the memories I had fought so hard to regain, against all the wards and charms Yu-Baba laced about my mind, whispering gently to forget all I had seen, done and known of that otherworld of spirits, and _the bathhouse_.

 

Something deep within my heart began to constrict at the way in which, the older you became, the less time you all had for my ‘nonsensical stories of spirits and demons’ that you used to enjoy as bright-eyed babes. It was my legacy, both as Chihiro... and as Sen, that I wished to pass to you, my little ones who have long since grown and left the nest to tend to families, lives and children of your own.

 

We may not meet again in this life, but please know that there is nothing in this world or the next, that can make me prouder of each of you, of who you were and who you became… know that, and bear with you my love for all the days of your life.

 

As my final act, I tell you now the one story I have withheld from you for so very many years.

You may think it silly, truly, that I have allowed the Ogino family history to wallow in mystery for so very long… but in truth, I was never quite certain how to explain the reality to you, for fear that you would read it as the fantasies of a failing mind.

 

Ah, if only my own parents had remained alive but a while longer… for then they could perhaps explain to you the confusion we felt that fateful day when everything changed, but sadly they only ever met and held the first of you -my light in the darkness, beautiful Hotaru.

I have no doubt they would have loved each and every one of you in turn, had they not passed on so swiftly during that fateful earthquake the very next year, when I found myself carrying Masashi. Such a great burden lay on my heart that they never were able to greet you, my only son… nor your sisters afterwards; but never doubt that they watch over you now, dearest Kazumi, clever Natsuko and willful Hanako.

 

Each of you… are something special.

Something unique, that can never be replicated or replaced, and this is the gift I give to you, and to your children… to their children’s children when the time comes. You carry no visible marks, but I see in some of you, in some of my grandchildren… that the gift is strong and true.

Should you see something move in the corner of your eye, in the edge of a mirror… a second human face hovering over an immobile one, smiling and laughing where the original remains mask-like… do not fear, but embrace the world you will see within our own. It is my gift to you.

 

Ah, but I allowed myself to ramble on, how strange to do so with written word… thoughts spilling into the ink I mark down onto crisp paper in the hopes you will read this and understand, if not now… then one day.

 

 

 

The story I must tell you, the reason you all carry on the Ogino name, begins somewhat unconventionally as stories go… for it begins with an ending, and ends with a beginning.

 

-

 

The world unto which we had emerged was not that from whence we had originally journeyed, it appeared to our eyes; minds still fresh of our adventures, and eyes darting this way and that, noticing the new where the old once was.

 

Neither your grandfather, Akio, nor your grandmother, Yuuko, seemed inclined to hold onto their brief foray into the spirit world - specifically as they seemed to have spent the vast majority of the time at the bathhouse as pigs- but nonetheless, I saw in their faces nothing but acceptance as we all felt the memories begin to fade like wisps of smoke in a light breeze.

 

But I was a stubborn child, willful, arrogant even… and I fought. I fought _so hard_ , to maintain the remnants of my exploits, even as vague impressions and stories… it was only many, many years later that I managed to circumvent the magicks laid upon me, and piece together all my accounts. All of you may recall the ‘colourful bedtimes stories’ I told you, as a direct result of this struggle.

 

While your grandfather loudly despaired about the state of the vehicle we had arrived at the Spirit World’s entrance in, and your grandmother marveled at the manner in which the foliage seemed to have grown rapidly in the brief interim of our visit; I looked behind, just once… and saw the last glimpse of the truth reflected in the eyes of the spirits who watched our departure from their world. As they faded away, or perhaps it was us that were the ones shifting from their watching gazes as our two worlds moved out of alignment once more, I saw the inherent promise of a return… _if I could only remember_.

 

It was, truly, disorientating in no uncertain terms.  
One minute, the memories were there and everything made sense… the car covered in the waste of flora and fauna from a long expanse of disuse, the very same clearing they had entered now attempting to reclaim both the cleared ground and the intruding vehicle, the babbling brook now devoid of liquid…

The next, it was all as much of a mystery to me as it was to my parents, and the sensation of loss built in my young chest until it felt like a keening wail torn from the throat of a dying dream, heavy as a lead weight and desperate to hold its place in my memories even as it faded.

 

Your grandfather was most adamant that nothing had changed whatsoever, yanking open the car’s doors and ushering us back within the vehicle, like a mother hen corralling errant chicks; before taking the driver’s seat. Looking back, and knowing now what I did not, and could not know, back then… the fact that the motor started at all was miraculous indeed; for the battery managed to maintain a spark after all those many years, when it should have been long dead.

 

 

Ah, such an ironic choice of words, but you will come to laugh at this fact too, my children, in but a moment when I elaborate.

 

There, upon the backseat I had so callously lounged upon prior to our entering the otherworldly rest stop, lay the bouquet of beautiful flowers gifted to me by former friends and classmates saddened that I was to leave them. Exquisite petals and shapely leaves now nothing more than the vague blackened shreds of plant, mostly a fine silt-like powder… wrapped in a decaying plastic, once cheerfully patterned and tied off neatly with a bow.

 

It was then that the doubt set in, this strange illusion that everything was alright failed to take hold truly and deeply as I focused more strongly upon the little things that made no sense, the tiny inconsistencies piling up around me. It was this, and this alone, that allowed my subversion of Yu-Baba’s charms… a quick mind and attention to detail are always powerful weapons, my children, never forget that.

 

The roads we took were… overgrown, slippery, dangerous…wild and untouched by humans in far too long. Almost alien, as it were. Light rain drizzled from the skies, the windscreen wipers creaking into life and trailing dirt and leaf matter in arcs across the dusty yet saturated glass.

No one had been this way in a great long while, the winding mountain trail practically untouched and utterly offended at the noisy automobile that rattled its way through the peaceful, green tranquility the long-since reclaimed roads hid away from prying human eyes.

 

Something in my mind whispered that I was being silly, that we had left home only several hours before to make the journey to a little country town on the outlier of the Toyama Prefecture. Ever the entrepreneur, your grandfather had decided to follow a new employment opportunity, offered to him through prior promotion at the hospital in our former township –where he had been Head Surgeon of since before even I was born. Within days of his acceptance, your grandmother also received a lucrative offer… for they were in high demand as skilled members of their respective fields.

 

We were never poorly off, and I suppose that tempered my attitude towards a more spoiled disposition than I would like to admit, but it was so… and none can deny the past.

 

I remembered we had been arguing before we paused our journey for some reason, but the only reason seemed petty now, so the rest of the trip through the eerie forest roads remained silent save for the few exclamations my mother made about various plants here and there. Your grandmother was quite the outstanding biomolecular researcher in her field; with a minor degree in horticultural studies, undertaken as the pursuit of a personal interest that grew strong the more she learned, while pregnant with myself and unable to work in the sometimes-hazardous lab environments. Even if some of the classifications went over my head, the excitement in her tone made the long descent down the foliage-strewn mountain not only bearable, but pleasant.

 

 

Strange, were the loud sounds of civilisation that reached through the window panes as we turned the final leafy bend in the mountain road, trees parting to reveal a road running perpendicular to that which had borne us there; the dark bitumen sparkled as droplets bounced off of its surface. As magical as it seemed, finally an end to the seemingly endless journey… it was also perplexing, for even then, I knew enough of our travel plans to realise that this could not possibly be where it was.

 

The town we had been travelling to was small, a country village just sprawling beyond its original borders… a land of fertile soil and rich opportunities for those with the ability to take a chance; to seize fate by the tail and hold on. Like your grandparents. Neither of them could resist such a challenge; a most stubborn stock you descend from, may it serve you well in future.

 

In some confusion, we took the long stretch of impossible highway, slowly filling to the brim with more traffic than I had ever seen before. Down, down we drove for such a time that I fell to sleep from the overwhelming nature of it all…

Only to reawaken, once again in a world I did not understand… but this one, oh this was truly unique of the other that we had visited, for it had been carefully crafted by the hands of skilled men and women to be a paradise of a new age.

 

My hands pressed to the grimy windows of the car in awe, eyes wide, trying desperately to take in the sudden gleaming wave of buildings and skyscrapers where once I had anticipated only low-level buildings, huts even.

 

 

 

Nothing could have prepared me for the sight of gleaming skyscrapers mixed in amongst a variety of stores, the bustling pedestrians whose faces flashed past too fast for me to even tell their expressions; this was not the small village town I had been expecting, and certainly this place was far removed from anything we had ever known before. Your grandparents were in as much a state of shock as I was, this thriving metropolis was utterly alien… beautiful, but terrifying in its immensity.

 

I remember, most vividly, how my father had to find a way to pull over out of the seemingly never-ending stream of traffic so that he might at least work out where we were; for the only directions given, as to the location of our new home had been ‘take the main road straight through the village until you see the hospital, then, take a left and it’s the fourth house on the right’.  As you can imagine, or simply see if you gaze out your windows as you read this, there were far more roads here… none seemed familiar, or indeed, even upon the map your grandmother pulled out from the glovebox to consult. We were most certainly lost.

 

In desperation, and after a brief argument between your grandparents - wherein your grandfather outright insisted he had an excellent sense of direction so there was no need to ask for any- that your grandmother won; a local store clerk was consulted. The counter was too high for me to look over, so all I saw was the stunned expression of the young man behind the counter reflected in the protective plastic shielding around the register area.

 

That they seemed genuinely surprised that someone should ask for that very address, most likely this would have aroused our collective suspicions had we all not been so very tired and ready for an end to this long, long day of travel. However, the directions they gave seemed utterly opposite those we were originally given, but perhaps it was supposed to accommodate the vast sprawl of new roads and developments?

 

After returning to our little car, the drive seemed to stretch both an eternity… and no time at all; it felt almost as if I were weightlessly trapped within a bubble made solely of that oh-so-strange blur where everything is fast and slow simultaneously. Though finally, mercifully, your grandfather parked the car… in a street that seemed as if it should be familiar; but in the way a strange house in a dream feels like home, though it may be completely opposite any abode you have ever inhabited.

 

There was indeed a building where we were to live, but it seemed so oddly out of place nestled amongst all the other newer houses in the street; not ramshackle or dilapidated, just… unloved, abandoned, bereft. No other words could explain the feeling that washed over my skin in a wave as I slid from my car seat, through the door and towards our supposed new home. The sensation left tingling running through my veins, and the closer I stepped to the building, the more the feeling seemed to build; like a strange foreboding not to approach, that dissipated as if it had never existed the very moment my childish fingers alighted upon the dusty doorknob.

 

My name was called, once only, and I turned away to look at my parents - who both stood staring intently at the house, their eyes shrewd and contemplative. This was indeed the address given, but it seemed the building itself had only been briefly maintained in the entirety of its existence. Bouncing up and down, both with the need to get inside for rest and also the call of nature that would not be denied much longer, I made my cries of impatience to be within both as high, and as plaintive as possible.

This, as always, seemed to have the desired effect. Resulting in an immediate series of flurried actions. From trying the key in the door’s lock, to entering cautiously for the first time and fumbling for light switches; to searching out the fuse box so as to ascertain whether there was working electricity in the house, and finally, the family retreating back to the car to collect our belongings.

 

 

Certainly, there was an alien feel to the house, as with all new places, but at the same time there was an ever-present sense of rightness about it; like this was where we were meant to be, and the house was preening at being filled with its purpose, _finally_. I will not deny that it was exactly this sensation that made me feel most at home there.

 

For approximately an hour after that, we explored briefly and then began to unpack things here and there… I remember the utter delight of seeing my new room for the first time; though it seemed rather bland, walls an off-white colour due to dust and the tiniest margin of grime, the bedroom itself was at least _twice_ the size of my old one. My parents had always promised me that this move was most important for me, specifically, as I would finally have ‘room to grow in’ for the first time in my life. They always laughed, your grandparents, thought such a statement was always the height of wit… even now, I do not find the appeal in the joke, but it is a nice memory to have -the laughter of your parents, that is.

 

Rudimentary dinner preparations later in the afternoon were cut off by the sharp rapping of a fist on our front door, which my father answered smartly, wondering aloud vaguely whether or not this might be a new colleague sent to welcome them.

Alas, my children, it was not such a hopeful concept… indeed, the very opposite of a friendly new parental acquaintance awaited on the other side of that door; for it was, instead, a pair of unsmiling police officers dressed smartly in their uniforms, backs ramrod straight and batons to hand as if in anticipation of trouble.

 

The male police officer made no greeting, merely began speaking before father could even ask for what purpose they were there. He asked if your grandparents knew that it was against the law to ‘squat’ in a home not of your own property, and if they were aware this was tantamount to theft in some courtrooms; leaving stunned silence in the wake of his questioning.

Your Grandfather tried to assure him that this was indeed the house that had been set aside and purchased for our use in Toyama Prefecture, so that he and your grandmother might take up positions in the local hospital and university research labs; as Head Surgeon, and Head of Biomolecular Research, respectively.

 

This apparently raised several questions within the female officer, as she turned to her partner with eyebrows cocked as if trying to communicate without words. For you see, my children, the city in which we stood was no longer Toyama Prefecture, but Toyama City… a conglomeration of six outlying villages and towns all brought together in order to build a technological paradise. Though we did not know this at the time.

 

 

 

Dinner was abandoned as the officers politely intimated we would all need to accompany them to the station, despite the protests of your grandmother and father that this was quite silly, and our day had already been long enough as it was. These were met with professional calm and civility, as they ushered us into a waiting squad car idling in the street and sped us far, far away from our new home.

 

The confusion, as I became aware of after many long hours waiting in a room filled with a basket of toys that I felt no inclination whatsoever to play with or even look at, was down to a simple misperception regarding the ownership of the house we were attempting to inhabit.

It appeared that many years prior, (‘ _forty years exactly next Wednesday’_ I had overheard the male officer whisper to another as they ushered me away to the room of toys and little else), the owners of the home and future tenants had failed to arrive; seemingly missing without a trace.

 

My heart near stopped, for, _for some strange, indefinable reason…_ that felt about right, for so long to have passed; though I understood not why until _many_ years later.

 

It seemed that indeed a new Chief Surgeon and Biomolecular Research Departmental Head had been coming to live in the, then small town, with their young daughter of ten years and a handful of months in age…

 

The trio, though farewelled with great fanfare, failed to reach their destination; and, after a great many days without contact, search parties were sent to scour the mountains in the anticipation of locating the missing simply turned around on the old, winding roads. Hopes dwindling of finding them alive with every passing hour, until, after weeks of searching… the sparse local authorities had called off efforts to locate the Ogino family –who appeared to have vanished without a trace.

 

I remember wondering how my friends must have felt seeing my face upon milk cartons and missing posters; some selfish little part whispered that I should hope they felt terrible for farewelling me so easily. Ah, children and their egocentricities… we were all young once, made mistakes, were selfish or cruel… live and learn.

 

But it appeared that forty years spanned the breadth of our journey; though my head was telling me we left our old home only that very morning to move to a new little town in the middle of nowhere for the opportunity of it all. Impossible, and yet… apparently true, from the expressions the grown-ups about me all wore.

 

At one point, a female officer different to the other came in and talked to me. She asked after my name, my age, little things I did not mind divulging to her, for she probably already knew this and was confirming the facts. After a while, she thanked me, and left again leaving me alone once more.

Outside, my parents were being asked to turn over all forms of identification they possessed, having their fingerprints and statements taken; all formalities, of course, for we were who we said we were. Though I understand now that, in the face of such an impossibility… the poor officers were doing their best to make sense of such an improbable situation; for surely in this world, the one not born of fiction, none can traverse time on such a mundane journey as the one we had undertaken, right?

 

True… and yet at the same time, quite false.

 

Still, they even took swabs of DNA from my parents to confirm that this was not, indeed, a hoax or scam designed to gain access to a sizeable reward offered in return for information relating to the location of the missing Ogino family -who had disappeared _thirty-nine years, fifty-one weeks and three days prior_. Which you can understand only confused your poor grandparents further, as they had no idea how this was even possible; they were tired and rather shocked by these revelations, so it made sense that they had become quite compliant if only to get this final ordeal over with.

 

I must admit, that at the time my attention was flagging, most of my energy went towards battling my own eyelids to keep them open, so you must understand that my reliability as a witness to these events is somewhat spotty at best. Though I do recall the cries and exclamations of intrigued confusion as the results came back some time that must have been around dawn, given the sudden weak light streaming through the slanted blinds on the windows.

They had the proof of our identities, and despite the complete impossibility of it all… there seemed no other recourse for the officers but to release us to return to our home and sleep.

 

Of course, this seemed to not be the end of it, for a police car would try to pass by the door once every handful of minutes; watching the streets as if we would suddenly take off into the night if not observed carefully and closely. Mostly what I recall was the alien softness of my new mattress, and the few brief times that consciousness reared its head to prod me to semi-wakefulness as my parents attempted to stealthily rise later that morning and call their workplaces -to little success, I must sadly inform you.

 

Your grandfather was usually so jovial, so the first instance of hearing his cheerful voice raised in frustration and anger, snapped me awake with all the gentle ferocity of a bucket of ice water dumped upon a peaceful sleeper.

 

It seemed that the lines attached to the numbers they had been given for their workplaces were no longer valid, ringing out for long minutes as they stared in confusion; for a moment, I thought that they had forgotten the revelation of the night before... but then I realised that this was how they were confirming this as truth for themselves. No one answered, for there was no one there to take the call… the police had stated last night that the original university and hospital buildings had been abandoned after a fire had gutted both facilities nearly thirty years previously; one torn down to make way for a memorial, the other refurbished into a series of small units for those left homeless by the devastating event.

 

 

Of course, with this revelation… reality tumbled down about us all.

 

If we truly had been gone for forty years inexplicably, then everything had changed and the world had moved on without us… as evidenced by the city in which we now stood. So big, so large, so full of alien technological marvels. Those we loved were either gone now, or moved on to newer, bigger things…

 

Those I had played with just the day before in my mind would be mothers –perhaps even grandmothers- already. All adults with lives of their own, jobs and families to take up all their time, experiences I could never share with them… I was probably nothing more than an occasional passing thought for those I grew up with, if at all.

 

Needless to say, I was in quite the dower mood for many a long hour after that. Your grandparents milled around the house, confused and frustrated, uncertain as to what the next logical step would be… it is not exactly as if someone wrote a manual on how to deal with being completely and utterly displaced by time itself.

 

The police returned, different officers who had been filled in on the situation, to provide information that they had notified next of kin and tracked down the appropriate occupational authorities for the new hospital and universities -created after the originals were destroyed and still going strong.

 

Purportedly, aunts from both sides of the family were understandably befuddled, but nonetheless overjoyed at the news of our sudden resurgence and would be arriving within the next few days.

 

Pertaining to employment, both the current Dean of the University, and Head of Medicine, had asked to have their details passed onto both Doctors Ogino as soon as possible.

 

 

There was, the officers pointed out tactfully, also the small matter of drivers licenses. Those which your grandparents currently possessed had technically expired many, many years previously… but frankly, they informed us all with no small amount of incredulity in their normally regimented tones, no one had any clue how to process the forty year gap on their systems. Therefore, as a compromise, both were required to report to the Department of Motor Vehicles within the week to retake the written and practical tests at no additional charge, so as to process them as new applicants. All previous attempts to reissue the Ogino parents follow-on licenses had inadvertently crashed the systems due to incongruous birthdate and renewal errors occurring.

 

Before leaving, the younger of the two officers noticed my presence and added a final, ominous, declaration. As ashamed as I am to say this, afterward such an announcement, I spent a long hour staring despondently at the completely and utterly useless new school uniform I’d laid out so very carefully on my bed…

Devout in my certainty that, even though it was many years late, I could still join in the coming school year and be the new girl; making friends, making a new life in this city of modern wonders. That ideological dream had shattered like a delicate china vase on cement.

The school that I had been enrolled in no longer actually existed; in its place, stood twelve new ones scattered about the city here and there… all prestigious, pretentious, and full of children who all knew more than I ever believed I would at the time.

 

Despite it all, your grandparents never gave up. They made a deluge of phone calls left, right and center to everyone they could think of… future bosses, local businesses they had been told to contact, family members who had passed on their number, the schools in the area, tutors… the list went on.

By the end of the day, a number of things were certain –both your grandparents had interviews with their respective bosses, I was to speak to the head of an academy three days hence, there would be a tutor sent out to assess my current educational level to see what additional information needed to be taught so I might be placed in a same-age class, and finally, thanks to the generosity of many local persons, we were to have a small manner of necessities.

 

People were stunned, but kind… food and drink, toiletries, toys, books, and small electronic devices I did not understand at the time were all brought to our door by smiling locals; many aged and grey, several among those who had originally awaited our arrival with anticipation.

 

They greeted us warmly, talked about the city and the many fantastic things we could do there; several of the younger family members tried to assist me in learning the names and uses of all the little gadgets they insisted were vital to survival in this day and age. No one asked where we’d been, or how we had arrived forty years too late… but it was there.

 

A physical presence people skirted around when they moved through the room.

 

Soon, it grew quite late, and many of these lovely people had to say swift goodbyes for they had work and school the very next day. I remember being sad to see them go, but also relieved… to have been surrounded by so many people was truly exhausting!

By the time I fell into bed that night, too full of small treats I had been plied with by ecstatic agemates and their families to even _consider_ dinner for more than a frivolous moment of fantasy, not even an earthquake could have awoken me. Exhausted, but happy, our second day in this strange new world came to an end.

 

From there, the days seemed to fly past in a blur of activity… and not simply due to the sudden arrival of every news station, reporter and journalist in all of Japan, upon our new front lawn. The cameras whirring, recording and clicking, each and everytime one of us stepped out of the door… many voices clamouring, begging for answers as to how we were here, where we were before, confirmation of one of the many ludicrous theories as to our disappearance; the more colourful involving conspiracies, magic, demonic spirits, even aliens!

 

We never answered them with more than a shrug, but they seemed determined to wait us out… at least, for the first few weeks. When interest was high and no other news seemed to be breaking quite as largely as our reappearance… impossible and yet true.

 

Your grandparents re-qualified for their licenses in under an hour each, taking to the new roadways and signs like ducks to water. The tutor decided that there was only a handful of things, mainly leaning towards the subjects of history and science, that I needed to learn before my educational level was equal to that of my peers. At the interview with the strict Headmistress Makoto of _Shining Falls Academy_ , the tutor provided a glowing report which inevitably smoothed things over and allowed for my eventual ‘official’ enrollment the week afterwards.

 

Your Great-Aunt Toko, eldest of your grandfather’s family, arrived with husband in tow; so too, did Minora, great-aunt from your grandmother’s side, a widow of many years at the time. I remembered them as young, my parent’s age… but now, they seemed far more like my _own_ grandparents in both appearance and behaviour.

 

 

Age had worn on them, almost as greatly as the presumed loss of their siblings and _favourite niece_ ; while it was factually true that I was indeed their only niece, the sentimentality behind the statement was always well-appreciated. Especially after all this time.

 

They stayed but a handful of days, discussing this and that, the world as it was now as opposed to the one we remembered. Pleasantries, but the underlying joy lacing the words was a pleasurable melody to my ears… the bonds were reforged; our family had found us, even through the vastness of time. It was quite a shock to come to the realization that all the cousins I remembered being tiny tag-alongs holding their mothers’ skirts were indeed full-grown now.

Successful in their fields and vital members of their own families; their parents only too pleased to show them off through photographs - those I could hold, and many on the strange devices they referred to as cellular phones, that I could not.

 

To see them go was a loss indeed… but it did not feel like farewell, merely the wave you give a neighbor at night as you head inside, fully intending to greet them again on the morrow as you venture out into the world once more.

 

By now, the press had grown bored, realising that at this juncture we either did not know or did not care for _them_ to know how it was we came to arrive in Toyama City, the picture-image of those who had failed to arrive at a time now forty years prior. Many left, thankfully… some resisted for an extra hand’s-span of days, but eventually gave in. The public interest had moved on to some new fad or mystery, ever-changing, as the rest of the world did.

 

 

Time had moved on, technology progressed, new methods of research and medicine had been discovered during the interim in which our brief sojourn through the decades had occurred.

This reality meant many things, but the harshest of all realisations was the undeniable actuality, that everything my parents had come to know through hard work and study, was now obsolete. Though neither were technically qualified under current medical and research standards, a deal was struck… the University and Hospital would sponsor both Doctors Ogino so that they might renew their individual degrees and train in new methodologies;  in return, they would sign exclusive contracts with both entities after graduating. They had been, after all, the heads of their respective fields prior to disappearing, it would make little sense to cast an achievement like that aside so carelessly without further thought.

A small weekly stipend would also be provided to assist with living costs and extraneous tuition fees.

 

We lived, if perhaps frugally at some times, quite comfortably for the many years in which your grandparents studied to regain their qualifications in this new world. As for myself, my curious little ones… despite the cultural shocks that occasionally arose, within the new school environment I _thrived_. Like I was born for this world, and this world alone.

 

You will recall that I am one who does not stand for idle boasting, but the truth was that in this new world I found great and wonderful opportunities; swiftly becoming head of my class in the blink of an eye. True, many were attracted to me in hopes of hearing the answer of the great mystery… but yet many others became my close friends, content in the knowledge that they many never know.

 

And yet… one boy consistently caught my eye. Familiar as a face in a dream…

 

He always seemed, so amused when I wrote a fiction for language class or just for fun; like he already knew the ending, but I never knew how he could, for these were my dreams! Or so I thought for such a long slew of years it does not bear recounting… for they were memories.

 

And the boy, we became friends… he aged with me, to a point. When we were but young adults he seemed to still in the pool of time, and do nothing more than watch as the world around him moved away; gaining and losing as fate saw fit, touching all but him.

Slowly, oh so slowly as we grew together, friends at first… _I began to remember_.

I began to realise why his name rose to the top of my tongue each time I passed a stream; why the way his eyes danced as I spoke of a strange dream to our other friends, who just giggled and complimented my strange imagination.

 

_He knew._

 

And know this too, my children… this is not a stranger, faceless and unknowable, that I speak of… but one you knew quite dearly. For, indeed, he was your father, Haku of the Spirit Wilds.

 

Many of you remember him only as a vague blur in your memories; happy, though distant, and I shall tell you why in but a moment.

All through the academy we got along well enough, but when it came time for university, I noticed what the others had giggled at before… every choice I made, he made also. Haku following like my shadow in all things, a silent protector, a guarding friend… still, I confronted him once and once only to inform him that this pseudo-stalking was quite unwelcome.

That _if he wished to follow me everywhere I went, he must accompany me by striding alongside_ , not several feet back where he thought I might not see. That such behaviours led tongues to wag, and not for good reasons…

 

At this time, the dreams were more vivid, bleeding into my waking life, feeling so very warm and real like childhood memories; and they were, I suppose, in their own way. My time in that world was coming back the longer I spent in Haku’s presence; our combined banter about my dreams burning away at the protective seals made by Yu-Baba all those years past.

 

Your father, he came with me, to University where we both desired to study medicine, to help and heal those who needed it.

We passed our exams with the best results of all those in our grade… mostly due to my efforts; you received your inherent wits and intelligence from me directly, my little ones, never forget that!

 

To spare you the discomfort, I shall not write of the long evenings we two spent bandying words of poetic love at one another under the shade of our favourite oak tree on the edge of campus, nor will I embarrass you all with the tale of our first kiss under the moonlit community gardens… or the long rambling ballads that could be made of the way we would challenge one another to do strange and wonderful things for the sake of it… we were young, free and somewhat mad. This was what it meant to be alive, to us…

 

…but perhaps I could be persuaded to tell you this, and only this, of our journey through the twisting turns of young romance. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom when he proposed, before none but the birds in the trees… and a handful of familiar-seeming frogs. Throughout the years, each of you may have wondered why I would always say that little rickety old bridge over the pond near our home was my favourite place in this world…

 

Now you know.

 

The wedding was as grand an affair as you can imagine, given your grandparents were now Chief Surgeon of the First Toyama Hospital and Dean of Toyama University.

 

Haku adopted the Ogino family name, as technically he had no true last name that would make sense to mortal eyes or ears… spirits are like that, you see. It must also be said that indeed I had doubt in my heart that ‘ _Doctor Chihiro of the Spirit Wilds’_ would fit upon a business card, much less be assessed as a name that inspired confidence in my capabilities as a medical practitioner. Nonetheless, we looked an age… young, but old enough to be wise; and most importantly, happier than words could ever describe, nor songs capture.

 

We graduating the following year, certified as qualified practitioners in the field of medicine. Though we turned down all offers to take up residence at your grandfather’s hospital; choosing instead to take our own path… as I have always encouraged each of you to do so.

_Make yourself that which you wish to be and let none stop you_ , as you will recall our family motto reads.

 

It seems, as you will have noted by the occasionally over-indulgently opulent lifestyles each of you knew as children, that we chose correctly; the greatest risk bore the highest gain. In a handful of years, our small family-based clinical practice had expanded beyond our wildest dreams into a private hospital that many from all over this great country flocked to for treatment.

The influx of patients that rarely needed to return more than twice ensured that none became aware of the unnaturally never-changing, ever-youthful visage of your father… as they might in a hospital setting.

 

 

 

Of course, at this time the mystery surrounding our family had dissipated to the level of urban legend, but occasionally when your father and I were studying hard at the most ridiculous hours of the early morning… small, poorly-researched ‘documentaries’ on _The Family That Transversed Time And Space For Forty Years_ would come onto the tiny television set we secreted away in the study nook. Thus forcing us to abandon our work to watch with rapt attention, until the sheer insanity of their theories or attempted alien abduction recreations’’ forced us to laugh ourselves to tears; faces red and eyes streaming, no breath left.

 

Ah, a legacy of laughter was what we gave the world… but they will never know the truth that was finally revealed to me in its entirety by that time.

 

 

Shortly after our clinic expanded, you arrived Hotaru… to much joy and celebration. You, of all my children may remember your father most, for it was before he left…

 

You see, my children, it was only the very next year… when it was discovered another small miracle that was to be you, Masashi, was on the way, when disaster once again struck Toyama in the form of the grand, and terrible earthquake that I mentioned earlier. Both your grandmother and grandfather were tragically taken from us in the ensuing chaos…

 

Then, late at night, as we wept together in our room for the loss of the only parents either of us had ever known… your father, Haku, confessed to me that this world, _my world_ , was causing him far more pain than he could ever describe. The knowing that this was all fleeting, that the children he fathered and held would one day turn to dust… seeing the way age subtly stole me away, piece by piece… he feared he was no longer strong enough for this.

 

 

I bade him, admittedly in a fit of grief-stricken pique, to leave my presence immediately. Truly, I understood… to come from a world that never ages, where none ever die… into the human world where death is in the very air we breathe, in the rhythm of our temporary hearts, in the thrum of the world; it must be confronting, and terrifying in equal measures. However, at the time, pregnant and grieving, my emotions were allowed to gain no small measure of control over me; abandoning logical understanding for the full colour spectrum of feelings that welled within my heart and soul. Loss tinged with hope, joy with sadness… it was almost too much to bear alone.

 

 

He did understand, however, for your father returned the very next day to apologise; as did I.

We spoke candidly, and agreed that he might leave as often as he wished after the funerals had been held; for the door would always be open, waiting and welcome, for his return. This is why your memories of your father are fleeting, and somewhat not all there; for it is how he was in our lives, there and gone in an instant. The pain in his eyes grew as the years past, seeing me age… but it faded slightly as he held each of you for the first time, played with you.

 

Kazumi, Natsuko, Hanako… you each came in a flood, it seemed; babe after babe, a never-ending streak of happiness that lasted many years. Haku seemed so happy when he was with you… though you did not always see him, know that he has watched over you, as best he could for all of your lives until now.

 

Remember when you nearly fell from your bike, Natsuko, and the wind seemed to push you up again? Or perhaps the time Kazumi toppled into the river, and the water drained away to a trickle so you might be retrieved swiftly?

 

Hotaru, Masashi, recall the incident where neither of you could seem to retrieve an ailing baby bird from the abandoned nest so high up from where your tiny selves could reach, leaving you sobbing on the ground? Remember how the tree seemed to dip down, gently, and give the nest to you, and you could never explain how or why…?

 

Hanako, last of our children, I write this with care as it was only a year ago to this day and greatly upsetting for us all. The greatest act your father performed was during the time when tiny Mikasa came into the world and refused to breathe no matter what I, or any of the others in the room tried… and on that day, in that hour, he returned when he sensed our great distress. Oh so very gently did your father take little Mikasa into his arms, hold her as if she were the greatest treasure this world could produce, and finding a way to breathe the will to live into her tiny body.

 

 

The mortal world has caused him pain, but he never abandoned you, not once. Know this, and know that we have loved you from the moment we knew you existed… not one of you would I trade for anything this world, _or any other_ , has to offer.

 

You, and you alone, children of the Ogino name and lineage, are unique in this world. Born of human and spirit, and the overpowering love that allowed for it to happen…

If you see things you cannot understand, please, be not afraid… this is your birthright, something only you and your descendants will ever glimpse into; like children on tiptoe peering over a counter at the candymaker plying his trade. It is yours alone, embrace that which is yours alone in all this great world.

 

 

Ah, but my old hands ache, and I have one more thing to impart to you… most important of all, indeed. For it seems that in these final years of mine, when I have watched you all grow, and seen you each gain lives and families of your own… I have felt nothing but pride, and love. Though something else beckons now, the chill hand of the end is nearing close enough to feel the gentle brush of the death’s ever-approaching embrace; so softly does it call to us all when our time draws short in this world.

 

Weep not for me, my dear, _dear_ , children… do you think I should go down without a fight after all this time? Not since I was but a girl-child of ten, then-called _Sen_ , fighting for the lives of your grandparents in a Spirit Bathhouse!

 

Another way exists for me to continue on, though I must leave you now as if I have indeed departed. Your father, Haku, has returned for me for the last time. He sits and reads this over my shoulder, perched upon the back of my rickety old chair with a youthful face once more, waiting for me to finish our goodbye.

 

I shall leave here, carried on the winds with Haku, to return to the world of Spirits again, this time of my own volition; and, once I have eaten of the fruit, age and death shall no longer lay claim to me… but indeed reverse themselves. We shall be youthful once more, to watch over you all, and your children, and their children, for as long as time exists…

 

When you are ready to know more, come and find us… follow your dreams, tell your children our story so that they might one day join us if they wish. But I caution you all, do not seek me until you are ready to leave this world behind, leave nothing you would regret, and hold no reason to look back.

 

 

But, most of all my children… never forget that I love you, as does your father, and we will keep you safe all your days. It is our last gift to you.

 

Live long, and happy lives, my little ones grown big.

 

 

 

Farewell, Your Mother & Father

 

_Chihiro & Haku Ogino_

 

Spirits of the River, for now and ever

 

 

* * *

 

**The End.**

**Author's Note:**

> \--------------  
> Name Meanings in Order of Birth
> 
> Hotaru (F) - Firefly  
> Masashi (M) - Elegant, Splendid  
> Kazumi (F) - Harmonious Beauty  
> Natsuko (F) - Summer Child  
> Hanako (F) - Flower Child


End file.
